Had "Kooper" (15 mos. old) in the boat/marsh for his first hunt on 6 JAN. He performed admirably! Made two water retrieves and one blind retrieve. Demonstrated good blind behavior too. I was pleasantly surprised and I'm now happy to share my duck blind with another friend.

Ed, where did you get your Golden? He looks amazingly similar to my girl Caly. I swear at first look I said "Holy shit, a picture of Caly" LOL! She too has amazing behavior in the blind, even when she was 5 months old...not a peep from her. I've never heard this dog whine or make a sound while hunting.

Yep... they definitely look similar! "Kooper" came from Dutch Ayre Goldens in Bridgeville, DE. The Vanderwende's really don't breed their dogs for hunting; their pups are rarely used as waterdogs. As a matter of fact, they were surprised and thrilled when I sent them photos of Koop on his first hunt.

We bought Kooper as a family pet with strict instructions from my wife and daughters that he wasn't to be hunted (for good reasons and a long story). But, when I saw his desire and drive to retrieve at a young age, I became determined to spend time training him. When the girls saw how much he liked to retrieve, especially in the water, they agreed to let me take him up to the blind.

Still have a lot of work to do with him, but he's getting better every week.

There aren't a lot on this side of the pond either. I didn't notice your comment yesterday, sorry. As for Toller trainability I am speaking as someone who has never trained a dog for gun work. I did a lot of study, research, planning and sweat in working with her and had good results. Some reading I did on tollers said they cannot be trained like a lab and need a softer hand with much less repitition and more fun. I found the more I fussed and made her do drills over and over again I started getting bad results in training. I decided to do several drills in no particular order and keep the training down to 15-20 minutes per session. They do lose interest quiclky while training but that seems to go against their breed characteristics and hunting style. They are bred to run and play on the shore while luring the ducks in to gun range and I have witnessed this first hand and this is where they really stand out and are their happiest. I have worked her, starting at 6 months, on drills while sitting at heel (and myself sitting on a bucket too) and I shoot a gun at different targets and sending her after one but not all marks. I think this steadiness drill is key to keeping her as calm as she is in a duck blind or boat. She generally goes to her spot where she can see the action and I send her on retrieves from there. I think her temperment (from what I have read, tollers in general) do not respond to heavy handed corrections but positive reinforcement. I did use an e-collar on Sam and more than anything it hurt her feelings when I nicked her with stimulus. After she realized what the collar meant I had much better response to the tone option on a collar and now rarely use stimulus. She is a very easy going dog who enjoys lots of play time and then relaxes and is just a lump on the rug indoors. She hasn't met a person she didn't like and my 9 months old daughter crawls all over her in the house and Sam just lays there. She has actually grabbed Sams teeth and she just looks at me to say "can't I just lay here and sleep". She is not a pup at three years old now but not old either. I would recommend a toller for someone who requires a small dog and hunts a variety of game. I'd say they are perfect size for a sneak boat or other smaller craft. I have had her in my kayak and haven't ended upside down yet.

This one of my four labs , SUNRISES ETCH-A-SKETCH call name TRACE out of NFC FC AFC DEWEY'S DRAKE OF MOON RIVER , Hard to believe he will be seven years old this coming March . I've hunted him from here on the East Coast all the way out to the Midwestern states and he just never quits . He made eleven retrieves on this hunt in about 45 minutes .

One of my Black labs , HRCH FAIR WIND'S HONKY TONK MAN MH is my pup out of NFC FC AFC FIVE STAR GENERAL PATTON , Hank is a very exceptional and talented dog like his daddy , Hank passed the 2011 Master National his first time qualifying , some of you might know this story or not ! but I let a young man named Tommy Landers handle Hank with a Cohandler in the biggest MN ever on its 20 year Anniversary . Tommy has Down Syndrome and is legally blind with a limited speech , Tommy was the first special needs person to be allowed to handle a dog in a AKC sanctioned event . I was very honored to have Tommy handle Hank and it will always be one of the biggest highlights in my life .

RyanThats a great photo of parmer taking off it looks like he his enjoying himself, there is nothing better than to see a dog learning and rearly enjoying himsef at the same time. thanks for posting it